Tales from the front line in the hunt for the perfect SCART television for use with the MAME arcade game emulator.

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Why 100 Hz sux

One of the things I learnt early on in the SCART hunt is that CRTs with 100 Hz processing can never fully recapture the classic arcade look. There are just too many image artifacts that end up niggling the CRT perfectionist.

Searching through my files, I found a couple images that show exactly what I'm talking about:

Street Fighter III - red on black is a mess!

Rainbow Islands - this game is a disaster with 100 Hz!

These images are from a Loewe Profil Plus with a Philips A68ESF type tube. Great looking TV with an amazing tube! One of the sexiest out there. Beautiful semi-flat design and amazing contrast. However, check out that text in Street Fighter III! That image isn't out of focus (check the edge of the TV casing... it's in focus), but the 100 Hz chassis just murders the image.